Requests and advances
Approve online bookings yourself before they're confirmed, and ask for an advance. The time is held for 4 of your open hours while you decide, and until you answer once you've marked the advance received.
Some bookings shouldn't confirm by themselves: a tattoo that needs a chat first, say, or a job you want to price before you commit. Switch on approval for those services and online bookings arrive as requests, with the time held for the client while you decide. An advance asks for part of the price before the visit; it comes to you directly, and you mark it received when it arrives. Both are set per service, for any kind of business.
Turn them on
Open a service in Calendar → Services (Sessions for a tattoo studio) and find "Before you confirm".
- "Approve each appointment yourself". The last word is your calendar's, such as "booking" for home services. Online bookings of this service arrive as requests; off, they're booked straight away. Bookings you make at the desk are never requests.
- "Advance to pay before the visit". The amount clients are asked for. On its own it holds nothing back: the client is booked at once and asked for the advance afterwards. With approval on too, the request holds the time while you wait for it, until the hold runs out; once you mark it received, the time is held until you answer (below).
The services list tags these services "Needs approval" and with the advance amount. Choosing a tattoo studio or home services as your kind of business opens this panel on each service, but leaves the switches for you to set.
What the client sees
On your booking page the service says you confirm first, and the last button reads "Send request" instead of "Confirm booking". The client's page and email say "Request sent" (the page says "Pay the advance to confirm" when an advance is due) and how long the time is held for them. The calendar invite comes when you confirm. Until your cutoff for online changes, they can withdraw the request from the same page; after it, they have to call or message you.
With an advance, the client's booking page asks for it. On a calendar priced in rupees whose Kard has a UPI ID, it shows the ID to copy, with a QR code to scan with any UPI app, or on Android phones a button that opens the UPI app instead. Otherwise the page says you'll tell them how to pay, so send them your payment details yourself. No email asks for the advance; on a request, the appointment's "WhatsApp about the request" opens a message on your phone that asks for it, with a link to their page.
Emails go only to clients who gave an email address; the others see each answer on their booking page, so call or WhatsApp them.
The hold and your answer
A request holds its time for 4 hours of your opening hours, counted from when it's made, and never later than 30 minutes before it starts. Only open hours count, and only while the person it's with is working: nights, closed days, their day off and their time off don't. To a salon open 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM, one made at 6:40 PM is held until 1:40 PM on the next open day, and one made at 8:00 PM until 2:00 PM. The deadline is set when the request arrives, and the appointment, the panel on Today, the requests list, the client's page, the emails and the morning summary all give it: "The time is held until…". Online, services that need approval can't be requested within 30 minutes of the start.
Requests show on Today, in the panel at the top ("1 request to approve", with "Review" for the full list), and with a "Request" tag on Upcoming for other kinds of business. With notifications on, each one also reaches your phone as it arrives, with its deadline. "Approve" books it, and the client gets "You're booked" with the calendar invite. "Decline" takes an optional reason, which the client sees in their email along with a link back to your booking page. Neither can be undone. "Reschedule" moves a request, and its hold starts again from the move, unless its advance is marked received.
About 2 hours before a request runs out, you get one last call: the morning summary names it, or an email does for a request made after the summary. If nobody answers in time, the request runs out: the time opens up, and the client gets an email saying nobody could answer in time. Everyone who can answer requests gets an email too, with the client's number to call or WhatsApp them, and the request stays on Today marked "Ran out". A request whose advance you've marked received is never declined this way: the client has paid, so it waits on Today until you approve or decline it, even once its time has passed, and their page tells them to contact you if that happens.
Advances
When a client says they've paid, check that the money arrived in your bank or payment app. Then open the appointment and press "Mark received", or "Approve and mark received" on a request, which does both. The client gets an email and their page says the advance arrived, the takings count it that day, and when they pay the rest, "Mark paid" starts from the price less the advance. On a request, "Mark received" alone keeps it a request, held until you approve or decline it, so you can call the client first. "Undo" sets it back to not received; on a request, its hold starts again from then. Until it's marked, the appointment shows "Advance due", and on a calendar with Today, Today's list and the requests list tag the visit with the amount.
The calendar never takes or returns money. If you cancel or decline after an advance arrived, any refund is between you and the client, outside eKard, and the advance stays in your takings; if you refund it, press "Undo" on it to take it out.